


A Reminder

by Spellfire01



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men Evolution
Genre: Bittersweet, Domestic, F/M, Family, Fluff and Angst, Happy ending maybe?, Injury Recovery, Internal Conflict, M/M, Medical Procedures, Multi, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-05 20:43:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15871401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spellfire01/pseuds/Spellfire01
Summary: 15+ years after parting ways, Wanda and her family get an unexpected visit.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This plot bunny has been playing on my mind for the past two weeks and I’ve finally figured out a way to write it. 
> 
> The setting for this is X-Men: Evolution crossed somewhere over to the MCU and the X-Men movies along this AU’s timeline (it’ll work out though, you’ll see).
> 
> Recommended listening:  
> Reminder and Hopeless Wanderer by Mumford and Sons.

Wanda had just fallen back into the one of the two comfy armchairs next to the fire, her eyes weary and body tired from the hard work she had been doing in the garden all day, mentally drained from putting little Talia back to bed for the eleventh time tonight.

The first time had been easier, the five year old declared that she wasn’t tired - despite her huge yawn and eye-rubbing in the middle of the claim - but soon after her sneaking out of her room it had turned into a game of teleporting chase - one that Wanda hadn’t been willing to play and Kurt had won easily.

This, however, was just the start.

Four hours later Wanda hoped that Kurt reading their daughter a goodnight story, Treasure Island (again) would finally lull Talia to sleep.

Just as Wanda began to relax, the warmth from the fire easing her aching muscles, there were three quick knocks at the front door.

At first Wanda thought she might be so tired that she was hearing things.

It was ten o’clock at night, Wanda and her family lived in the middle of no-where, a three mile drive to the nearest town. 

She had no idea who could be visiting, let alone at this time.

Then began the pounding on the other side of the door, a fist hammering against the old, oak wood.

Wanda jumped up from her seat and hurried towards to door, all but yanking it open to see a man leaning heavily against the frame, breathing heavy enough to hear and the blood he was trying to stem with a shaking, webbed hand against his side gleaming a bright scarlet in porch light.

Wanda stood shocked for a second, eyes wide and trained on all the blood.

There was a BAMF at her side, then another, louder one not a second after, two gasps and the thick smell of sulphur in the air.

Wanda span around to see Kurt covering Talia’s eyes as she tried to get a peak, and ordered him in a voice a tad to panic ridden for her liking to put her back to bed.

He complied easily with a nod and BAMFed away again, leaving her alone with the stranger. It wasn’t like she couldn’t handle herself, and the man was badly wounded-

Just as she finished the thought, the stranger leaned towards her and stumbled, flopping into her waiting arms as she surged forwards to catch him.

Using her abilities, an obscure, red glow surrounding the stranger, she dragged him into the kitchen and sat him down in one of the simple wooden chairs at the round table. After she managed to pry his free hand off of her shoulder, she raced around the kitchen, grabbing a clean dishtowel, the adrenaline rush making her work on autopilot.

Wanda pulled his trembling hand away from the wound, and lifted his soaked-through sweater to get a better look at it.

It was, to put it lightly, horrific.

A large, deep gash at his middle on the left, hopefully only doing damage to his liver, blood dried and still running in rivers down his greenish skin, pale from blood loss.

She pressed the towel against the wound to try and stem it for now, knowing that it needed stitches at the very least. She washed her hands in the sink and grabbed the medical kit she kept under the kitchen sink and the sewing box in the living room by the sofa.

Wanda had mastered sewing scraps of material to jeans and fabric tares due to Talia being an adventurous, brave little girl with her Father’s spirit, and had practiced embroidery frequently as a hobby she’d picked up in the last few years.

She’d read up on stitching wounds before due to her and her husband’s dangerous line of work - before they’d both settled down at least - so she put her knowledge to the test.

After sterilising both needles - one blunt to sew the liver, and one sharp to close the skin - she tried her best to clean the wound and got to work, ignoring the pained sounds from the man.

It was tricky, the needles hard to hold, but she’d done it. She looked at her handiwork of bandages covering the stitching before kneeling down to look at the man’s face, his chin resting against his chest.

“I’m sorry, we don’t have any strong painkillers, can you have Ibuprofen?”

The mutant blinked at her slowly with glassy, amber eyes.

“Ibuprofen. Can you have it?” She pushed again.

There was a slight nod before he closed his eyes tiredly.

Wanda lifted her hand to shake his head by the chin, her tone stubborn but gentle. “Hey, no falling asleep on me now, come on.”

He took the two tablets with a glass of water on his own, before he well and truly fell asleep.

Wanda wasn’t sure what to do next now that the adrenaline was wearing off fast. She sat down heavily into the chair next to him, looking over at the other mutant curiously. She swore she’d seen him around before. She recognised his nose, maybe his eyes, webbed fingers..

Before she could finish her thought, she felt a hand rest comfortingly on her shoulder, squeezing lightly. 

“Are you okay? I didn’t want to interfere when you were concentrating.” Kurt’s kind words - always kind - soothed her near immediately.

Wanda raised her hand to cover his and sighed heavily. Just when she thought the night couldn’t get any more stressful.. “I’m fine...Him on the other hand? He should have gone to hospital.”

“...True, but he might have died before we could get him there.” Wanda nodded in agreement, still feeling shellshocked with what the night had brought with it. She stroked her thumb along one of his fuzzy fingers, still staring at the stranger’s short, brown hair after his head had dropped back to his chest again.

“Kurt? Do you recognise him?”

Her husband shifted behind her, leaning down for a closer look. “I’m not sure. Maybe. Who do you think he is?”

“I have a good idea, but it better not be right.” After another few moments of staring, she started to get up from her seat. “Come on, lets put him in the spare room. Did Talia see anything?”

Kurt helped her up - ever the gentlemen even after all this time - and scooped up the man, looking small and horribly ill in his arms as they both made their way through the old house. “No, I made sure of it. She must be curious to know what happened though.”

Wanda pinched the bridge of her nose as she pushed the door open to the spare room, holding it open for them both. “I’ll find a way to explain it to her, you’ve helped out enough tonight, really.” She rested a hand on Kurt’s shoulder while he set the man on the covers of the bed. It would do for now.

Kurt shook his head, looking back at her with his beautiful, golden eyes, glowing in the dim light. “We are a team.”

“Always will be.” Wanda smiled at him, worn form exhaustion. “I’m going to stay here for a while, make sure he gets anything he needs if he wakes up, okay?”

Kurt straightened and made his way towards the door, pausing as he passed her. “Take good care of him.”

“Take care of yourself, go and get some sleep, elf.” Her smile felt more genuine as an amused grin split across his face. He pressed a sweet, lingering kiss to her forehead and cast one more glance at the sleeping man before BAMFing away.

Wanda sat down on the edge of the mattress, looking down at the familiar stranger as he snored lightly, just quiet enough for it not to be too annoying.

_What a night._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wanda is forced to revisit her past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Recommended listening for this chapter: ‘Names’ and ‘A Pound Of Flesh’ by Radical Face.

Two and a half weeks.

Their guest had been in coma for two and a half weeks.

After ‘The Incident’ as Wanda and Kurt called it around Talia, and during the weeks following, it was immensely odd how life just sort of...went on.

Talia was homeschooled, learning the bare basics and having plenty of playtime with her parents, Wanda and Kurt took turns making dinner and washing up respectively, they tended their garden and the small farm they’d started up in the middle of the surrounding wooded countryside of their plot - too small for a proper farm but enough for some chickens and ducks by the pond and single cow, and life went on as usual.

Wanda changed the man’s bandages regularly, checked for infection in his wound - which somehow hadn’t manifested against all odds, her and Kurt weren’t even sure he’d survive the first night but his pulse was still strong (they had used the various contacts they’d made over the years to get ahold of proper medical equipment and strong pain killers for their guest) and taking care of him became part of the family routine.

Kurt helped out where could such as changing the man’s clothes and sheets due to his limited medical knowledge.

Wanda and Kurt had talked about who they presumed he was and what to do with him once he woke up, but of course it didn’t pan out like that in the end. 

It was Talia to whom he woke up to, as Wanda found out when she came running down the hallway out of the guest room with a huge smile splitting her face, shouting “He woke up! He woke up!”.

Wanda startled and stood up from her spot crouched down in front of the fireplace, lighting up the fire to fight off the Autumn chill that hung in the air, and exchanged A Look with her husband, who had paused making tonight’s dinner.

“Do you want me to check on him?” Asked Kurt in an uncertain tone, putting down the vegetable knife on the wooden chopping block that sat on the countertop.

Wanda shook her head, waving off the suggestion. “It’s fine, from what I remember, you two didn’t exactly get along.” She replied. 

“Neither did you.” Kurt pointed out but stayed put, watching as Wanda took their daughter’s hand and let Talia drag her along.

“We were playing princes and princesses-“ Talia started to explain.

“Playing what?” Wanda hadn’t heard of that one before.

“Princes and Princesses, I heardyou and Papa call him Toad so I kissed his hand like in all the stories to turn him into a prince but he just woke up.” Talia explained, sounding a little disappointed, opening up the door to the guest room with some help.

Toad was laying back in the bed, sheets still tucked around him, looking groggy and ill but much less so than before with the colour back in his face. His now-focused eyes trained on the two of them expectantly still caught Wanda off-guard in some small way.

“Oh.” Wanda said simply.

“Oh.” Toad repeated in a croak, lips cracked and his voice raspy with dehydration.

Wanda looked down to Talia, rested her hand atop her hair, so black that it had a blueish hue, so that she caught her daughter’s attention. “Why don’t you go and see if you can help your papa? Mommy needs to talk to our guest.” Wanda asked, petting her hair gently for a second before Talia nodded and rushed out of the room again to find Kurt.

Wanda closed the door and let her hand rest against it with a long sigh, then turned back to her old teammate and regarding him with a guarded expression. 

“Why are you here, Toad?”

Toad raised his eyebrows up at her and looked down where the sheets were wrapped around his waist as if it were obvious.

Wanda crossed her arms. “Why here.”

Toad gulped and glanced around the room, not meeting her eyes. ‘...Heard you were here.” He rasped, as though it explained everything.

They fell into an awkward silence for a short time.

“How long have I been out?” Toad asked untucking his arms from the sheet around him and playing with the faded, fraying blanket on top of it.

Wanda uncrossed her arms and rested her hand on the door handle. “Two and a half weeks...Do you want some water? Food? Dinner will be ready in half an hour or so if you’re hungry.”

Toad nodded, which was probably best for his throat.

Wanda opened the door once again then headed straight for the open-plan kitchen without looking back. She knew that she should probably be more caring, or something, but knowing why Toad has chosen to come here of all places, it just brought the past rushing up to meet her all over again.

It had been years, and while he had suffered a horrific injury, she still selfishly felt like he’d intruded.

Wanda knew that was wrong, but with her family and farm and her life she didn’t need ghosts turning up when everything was going so well for once in her life.

Pushing those thoughts from her mind at the echo of Kurt’s own from the kitchen, she smiled thinly at him, took a glass from the dresser and filled it with cold tap water.

“So, he is awake then?” Asked Kurt, who was currently crouched and looking through the window of the oven to check on the chicken still cooking.

He stood up after a few seconds and walked over to her,reached towards her to hold her hand gently, offering some comfort.

Wanda gave his hand a light squeeze in thanks and looked towards where her former teammate was currently waiting. “I haven’t gotten much out of him yet, but...He said, um.Toad said that he’d come to us because he knew I was here. Now, how he knows about that-“

“Is something we will find out in time, there is no need to start worrying right now.” Kurt assured her.

Wanda let her gaze wander from the hallway to the front door and the window next to it. After the whole ordeal that night, she’d had to wash the smudged, bloody, webbed handprint from the glass where Toad had presumably leaned against it while he was bleeding out. She and Kurt couldn’t leave it until the morning - or the trail of blood and various soaked-through tea towels piled up on the tile floor - lest Talia might see it.

Wanda wasn’t squeamish, but knowing who all that blood had belonged to still made her stomach turn uneasily.

“I could still go and check on him if you want me to.” Kurt suggested, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

Wanda pulled her hand away and lifted it to his velvety, furred cheek, her thumb brushing the fuzz against the grain before smoothing it out again. “I’ll be fine. Where’s Talia?”

Kurt whipped around to the garden, nodding to the window with a small, prideful smile on his face. “Outside, playing with the chickens.”

Wanda followed his gaze with a smile of her own at the sight of their daughter hugging one of the creatures in her arms while a few others tottered after her. 

“Well, I should get back to him, keep and eye on her with that pond, okay?”

“Of course, Leibling.”

Wanda didn’t bother to stop the flattered smile stretching across her face at the pet name, but wiped it off easily as she turned back and headed towards the not-so-spare room again.

Toad stirred as she opened it once more, the painkillers he was on must have been making him sleepy if his sluggish blinking up at her was anything to go by. She wordlessly handed him the water, which he took slowly, sitting up in the bed before taking a huge gulp of it.

Wanda frowned and used her powers to carefully lower the glass away a bit. “Easy..”

The ‘you-care-about-me’ smirk that got her from their guest made her raise an unimpressed eyebrow at him, and she let go of the glass.

“You haven’t changed one bit.” Wanda stated.

That wasn’t true of course, appearance-wise there was a reason both she and Kurt hasn’t recognised him at first. He’d changed completely. Wanda had heard of uncommon mutations where the mutant continued mutating throughout their lives, but it was one thing knowing a different thing seeing.

Toad’s skin had gotten a lot greener than its pale hue when they were teens, the whites of his eyes turned black though the yellow-amber-red of his irises stayed the same depending on the light. His nose and face hadn’t changed much, matured maybe, but that was given.

“I’ve changed more than you think. You on the other hand? What happened to your hair?” Toad eyed her long, brown hair as if it didn’t add up.

Wanda pushed some of it behind her shoulder self-consciously and shrugged slowly. “I’m successfully transcending my emo phase, dyeing it was making it awful.”

“Really?” Toad asked looking doubtfully at her clothes.

Wanda huffed in annoyance. “Transcending. Besides, if Persephone can be the queen of spring and the underworld, what’s stopping me?” She let a small smile twitch at the corners of her lips at that, through it disappeared as Toad’s smirk widened.

“Fair enough.”

“Anyway...You can talk, what happened to your hair?” The last time she saw him it had grown out just past his shoulders, mousy brown, greasy and straight as always. Now, it had been cut short, though the near-curly waves of it gave his hair more volume than she’d ever seen. It had gotten a lot darker too with age, as some people’s do, but it was drastically different from what it used to be. What with his darker, greener skin...it actually suited him, Wanda thought to herself.

“I washed it.” Toad stated simply. “I have money to be able to afford things that don’t mess up my skin now. Used to have a lot of skin problems if I washed regularly with the wrong stuff and all we could afford in that hellhole was the bare basics.”

That actually made a lot of sense. Wanda had just assumed that he was lazy or didn’t care - though that probably played a part in it, but still.

Toad took another long sip from the glass then lowered it, resting it between his hands on his lap, tongue darting out to wet his dry lips for a second, still that same off-green.

Wanda fought back a sneer at the sight - mostly out of old habit - and took a seat at the foot of the bed, letting silence fall between them until he’d drank another few sips of the water, thinking of what to say. “What did you do, Todd?” She couldn’t deny that she was curious, but she wasn’t about to get involved.

“Mortimer.”

Wanda frowned. “What?”

“I chose the name Todd when I moved over here from Brooklyn, to start over. Mortimer’s an old, uncommon name and I wasn’t goin’ ta give anyone any more ammo to use against me than they already did. Todd was the first thing I thought of and it stuck. But I don’t care anymore, I’m an adult now and I’m done with pretending.” He shrugged, turning the glass around in his fingers and studying it as though it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.

Well, that was unexpected. She’d certainly never heard of that name before, but it wasn’t as..simple as Todd. More interesting. “Mortimer” Wanda tested it out before continuing. “What did you do.”

“It’s complicated.” Mortimer looked up at her again, then crinkled his nose as he fiddled with his shirt collar. “Who’s clothes are these?” They didn’t fit him well at all, too big at the shoulders and too close-fitting at the waist but it was the best Wanda and Kurt could do for now.

“Who do you think?”

Toad smirked up at her, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “So, you an’ Kurt, huh?”

Wanda felt her expression turn guarded again, not above hexing him even in his condition if he said the wrong thing. “What about it?”

Mortimer’s smirk dropped off of his face and he looked out of the window to the rolling hills and colourful woodland and the grey, Autumn sky it looked out to. “Nothin’...What happened? Why him?”

Wanda brushed the comment off and stood up, deciding that if she stayed any longer she might loose her temper. “We all grew up, Toad.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and feedback is more than welcomed and keeps my Motivation Lampreys swimming!


End file.
